An airline pilot with poor eyesight had managed to pass his periodic vision
exams by memorizing the eye charts beforehand. One year, though, his doctor
used a new
chart that the pilot had never before seen. The pilot proceeded to recite
the old chart and the doctor realized that she'd been hoodwinked.

Well, the pilot proved to be nearly blind as a bat. But the doctor could not
contain her curiosity. "How is it that someone with your eyesight can manage
to pilot a
plane at all? I mean, how for example do you taxi the plane out to the runway?"

"Well," says the pilot, "it's really not very hard. All you have to do is
follow the instructions of the ground controller over the radio. And
besides, the landmarks have
all become quite familiar to me over the years."

"I can understand that," replies the doctor. "But what about the take-off?"

"Again, a simple procedure. I just aim the plane down the runway, go to full
throttle, pull back on the stick, and off we go!"

"But once you're aloft?"

"Oh, everything's fully automated these days. The flight computer knows our
destination, and all I have to do is hit the autopilot and the plane pretty
much flies itself."

"But I still don't see how you land!"

"Oh, that's the easiest part of all. All I do is use the airport's radio
beacon to get us on the proper glide path. Then I just throttle down and
wait for the co-pilot to
yell, 'AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!' pull the nose up, and the plane lands just fine!"
--------------------------------------------
Andrew Ch. Floros
Electrical & Computer Engineer
Wired Communications Lab.
Audio Team
University of Patras, Hellas
E-mail: floros(@)wcl.ee.upatras.gr
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